madbaker | It's basically pure sugar.

This week's Resolution Recipe: Chocolate Salted Caramel Tart.

Pastry:
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup ground almonds (I ground 1/3 cup whole almonds, but I should have just measured out 30 grams almonds and ground them.)
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup sugar
1 stick cold unsalted butter, in 1/2" cubes
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1-2 Tbsp ice water

Caramel:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup heavy cream
5 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp salt

Ganache:
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 oz bitter sweet chocolate, chopped
sea salt

Prepare the pastry. In a large bowl mix flour with ground almonds, cocoa powder, sugar, and salt. Incorporate the butter, using a pastry blender, fork, or pastry processor, until crumbs are formed. Add the egg and vanilla and mix them in. Add water and incorporate into the dough. Wrap it with plastic, knead slowly to form a disc, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or overnight.

On a floured surface (or over the plastic wrap) roll the dough to a circle about 1 1/2" larger than your tart pan. Lift up the dough and place on a greased 9" tart pan. Remove the edges and refrigerate for 30 minutes before baking.

Prick the dough with a fork and line with parchment. Fill with pie weights and bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Remove the parchment and weights and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Remove and allow to cool before removing from the tart pan.

Prepare the caramel. Place the sugar and water in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium high heat, and cook without stirring until the sugar dissolves and gets a caramel color. Remove the pan from the heat and add the cream. It will bubble a little bit. (Lies! It bubbles a lot. Fortunately this is not my first caramel rodeo, so I made this in a larger pan than the volume dictated, for just this eventuality.) Cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until smooth. Remove from heat and add butter and salt. Stir well until smooth. Let cool slightly and pour over the chocolate crust. Refrigerate for 4-5 hours.

Prepare the ganache. Heat the cream in a small saucepan. When the cream just begins to boil at the edges, remove from the heat and pour over the chopped chocolate. Let sit one minute, then stir until smooth. Pour over the caramel. Spread it evenly and refrigerate for another 2-3 hours before serving. Sprinkle with sea salt flakes and serve.

What worked: Most importantly - it was very good. People ate the whole thing. It is quite rich, so I had a 1" slice and that was sufficient. Making them in tartlets would be effective for serving size and attractive, but would be a huge pain in the butt to produce individually.

This is not a ton of work, but it is a ton of scheduling time. Since I made this for the GSP get-together on Sunday I ended up making it the night before. I also coarsely ground salt over the ganache shortly after pouring it over the caramel, so it would stick and stay in place.
I used a pie plate rather than a tart pan (which I have, but seldom use) and left it in the pie plate. This made transport and serving much easier but was less attractive than a free-standing tart from a crimped pan would be.

What didn't: I foolishly (but inevitably) burned the roof of my mouth rather severely with the caramel. Molten sugar sticks, duh.
This makes far more dough than you need; my tart crust ended up a bit thicker than would be ideal. Fortunately the excess dough was tasty to eat raw, like chocolate snaps dough. I added a bit too much water when I was mixing the dough in the fud processor and it got a little squooshy. This made the wrapping/kneading/rolling process harder than it might have been.

Will I make it again? Not anytime soon, as it's too rich for two or four of us to eat. And I would end up eating it. It's a very good potluck-type dessert though.